Think Fish Keepers Daily News [year 2020]

I feel like a mother that's just walked in on a teenage party and discovered that her children are not the perfectly behaved children she believed them to be while the hyperactive older neighbour (predictably) and the sensible gentle elderly neighbour who informally baby-sits them (uncharacteristically) are also joining in the fun.
The 5 cardinals are usually very sedate and close to the bottom but, whatever angle the filter outflow is at, it's caused both females plus one of the males to surf through the current, get tossed backwards, then start again as though cramming in ride after ride at a rollercoaster-ride theme park. (Anyone would think they'd overheard the comment I made to Mr FCMF only yesterday that I was semi-glad that they don't have any particular quirky traits that have made me get too attached to them.) The neon green rasbora is even more hyperactive than usual and joining in the fun. To my shock, though, even the elderly lady (Wee Harley) is joining in - although in seeming optimum health, I didn't expect these sort of antics to be happening!

Been having similar thoughts here too... I’m glad I don’t run CO2 for my plants... imagine trying to explain that journey to a local copper. Also glad not to have the expenditure at the moment... anyone noticed the price of food has gone up?

I’ve been tackling the garden today - well the side return bit. Full of house renovation rubbish and invasive weeds.  The weeds are gone but the council arnt doing the garden waste bin collections so there’s a pile of plants waiting. A pile of chopped logs - they are staying of course, and a a pile of renovation rubbish - also now realised I can’t take that anywhere... ahh well it’s looking a lot better anyways...

Also planted a load of sweet peas for which the seeds had been soaking overnight. I’m waiting on lettuces and courgette to make an appearance too. The sweet peas I’m planning to grow up a trellis I’ve fashioned along the side of the shed which you can see from the house. De mossing the lawn was quite a job, halted by a lack of grass seed too but again what I’ve done will look so much better in a few weeks. That’s if the birds don’t eat the seeds!! They have been caught red handed numerous times already. 

A lot of frog action in the pond but there didn’t seem to be much successful frogspawn this year, there is quite a bit of algae as there always is at this time of year but it already seems to be decreasing and the balance restoring. A little mouse family has set up home nearby and unfortunately they have been digging in the bank above the pond which has released soil into the pond and will do doubt have triggered the algae in part. The duckweed does not seem to be bad this year though.

Gosh that is all a bit of a random update... hopefully it makes for enjoyable reading though. 

I have noticed several times in the past that my fish have certain tastes in music - my goldfish seemed to swim more calmly/serenely when some classical music was played.  I've just witnessed Bendy Harley having a jig in his tank to some '80s music - even Mr FCMF commented on it, switched off the music (jigging stopped), switched it back on (jigging recommenced).

 

Not corny at all!
Results of test:
Not the same degree of excitement for Bendy Harley as '80s music but some acknowledgement it was playing, judged by slightly enhanced movement.
As for the main tank, curiosity followed by more active swimming from the neon green rasbora, followed by resumed normal activity by all.
Video footage to follow, ideally once I've established their musical 'tastes' as defined by more extreme reactions. Unfortunately, Handel's Water Music doesn't "make the cut" for them. Any other equally suitably themed suggestions welcome for me to try out.

Useful articles on this topic:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6061163/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31941064 [dogs]
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0376635713001228
http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=TR2013000953
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0144860913000046
https://www.livescience.com/39692-goldfish-bach-stravinsky.html

There has been a lot of "activity" in the fishtank overnight. Early this morning when I went to do the morning headcount, the snail foodpot had moved from its location at the front of the tank to the middle of the tank - it might have travelled further had it not been pushed up against the wood; its contents had vanished too, and the snails were nowhere to be found. However, there were white snail eggs everywhere. Then I noticed the snails stuck together behind some spare sponge that I keep under the filter. This afternoon, they've been clearly enjoying one another's company:

Ah, yes, they do appear to have been quite busy. 

An extended lockdown update... from a house with a baby that is currently on a three hour nap...

I have struggled recently to get decent cardinals and my group is now down to 4 hardy individuals - I tried to increase numbers about 6 months ago and most of the newbies didn’t last very long at all - this is the second time I’ve had this problem - anyone else observed the same thing with these fish? Everyone else is of course very healthy indeed...

I have still got the Pygmy puffers in there and they are doing absolutely fine with the other fish. As such I have taken down their old tank (can’t remember if I’ve said this before...) the plants are now in the main tank with them.

No signs of fry from the Nanacaras constant breeding but if they lay in a visible area again (only happened once) whilst we are still in lockdown, I might try and remove the eggs and raise the fry.

I believe the ember terras have started to reach a point of old age (they only live a couple of years) and I have lost a couple from the group of 12. In the heavily planted tank with shrimp and snails I never see any evidence of losses so it’s not too bad really.

The shrimp themselves have benefitted from the puffers decimation of the snail population - I have both a Neocardinia and Cardinia species in the tank (red and orange) - there are often more than 20 visible out and about. So there’s probably over 100 in the tank overall. There are a couple of Amano shrimp in there too but I never see them - only their moults

I have been trying to make the main tank as low maintenance as possible... it is now down to just one slowish growing stem plant (Bacopa) and I have added floating plants to increase fast growing plant mass - they are not CO2 limited so are a very good supporting plant with fast growth to limit algae/excess nutrients. They can also be used to identify any nutrient deficiencies in the water column before it significantly impacts the other plants which is useful. In this way I can minimise my nutrient dosing. I have also added Vallis back into the tank which is reasonably fast growing and I want the volcano like appearance the leaves will give appearing over the hardscape at the back. This is also able to be trimmed from the surface without need to ‘get arms wet’. The floating plants can be removed when there are too many (every fortnight) and the Vallis trimmed from the surface.

I am currently doing a 10% water change one week and a 50% the next with no adverse effect noticed so far - if I ever pluck up the courage to remove the planting substrate from the tank - put filter floss down to contain it as a barrier behind the rock work - and replace it, this will stop the stuff from seeping through on the foreground cosmetic sand which is the only reason for the 10% changes to clean it off the sand - then I will be down to the fortnightly 50% change only.

My aponogeton is growing again after a dormant period and has sent two flower spikes up to the surface too. It’s definately one of my favourite plants so I like to see this growth. It’s similar by smaller to crypt balansae if anyone is more familiar with that - with its awesome crinkly textured leaves.

I’ve sold 2 meters of Bolbitis rhizome which goes to show how much of this stuff I had in the tank and how overcrowded it was becoming - it’s nice to be able to see the hardscape again now! There’s still more available if anyone does want any... limited amounts of Java fern too...

Gretta the Bettas tank is still going strong - i had been debating whether to make this into a biotope tank but for now I have added hornwort from the pond ( @Sue you kindly sent me this years ago!) and have transferred the polysperma (someone on here also sent me this years ago...) today (fast growers) and have turned the little air powered sponge filter off... bit of an experiment (I’ll be looking after Gretta don’t worry!!) to see how the tank will get on and whether the plants can deal with the fish waste effectively enough.  Keep you posted!!

Anyway enough ramblings... hope some of that is interesting to members...

Indeed - great update. Thanks for sharing.

Re the cardinals, it seems they're almost all wild-caught, which may in itself mean all the stronger need to ensure that their requirements are closely met. I can't remember your PH but I know I've been a bit concerned that my own alkaline PH is the extreme of their range, although my very soft water is fine for them.  As you know, I lost one to dropsy when only a few months old, and I'm fairly sure I know who'll be next to go - a rather large female who is eating herself obese and breathes heavily a lot of the time (I've also read of others finding this with cardinals), as well as a couple of other changes I've noticed which may or may not be of any concern.  What changes did yours undergo and what did yours seem to die of?

As for Gretta, I can't link to the instagram account just now (will do so later if I can), but I love Amber/Ambee Wieland's colourful aquascapes, and she has a wonderfully planted bowl containing a beautiful betta and with no filtration, so fingers crossed that you can also achieve a planted tank minus filtration for Gretta.

Great re having been in touch with Ambee.

Sorry about your cardinals. That is different from mine - mine have been well-coloured but took ages to start eating, except for the one that died; now, I have two females who stuff themselves silly, fight over food, and the 3 males have to make do with any leftovers. I wonder if the fish having presumably been in the shops for longer now might work out well for you - they might be more robust in a "survival of the fittest" manner, rather than having been shipped halfway across the world in the previous week as you might have been dealing with before.

MOVING 2 POSTS RE CARDINAL TETRAS FROM HERE INTO NEW THREAD

fcmf